Spade and pick



(No Model.)

J. N. M. SHIMER. SPADB AND PICK.

No. 474,697. Patented May 10, 1892.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN N. M. SHIMER, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

SPADE AND PICK.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 474,697, dated May 10,1892.

Application filed November 16, 1889. Serial No- 330,63l. (N0 model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN N. M. SHIMER, a citizen of the United States,and a resident of Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia and Stateof Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inPost- Spades, of which the following is a specification, reference beinghad to the accompanying drawings, forming part hereof, and in whichFigure 1 is a view in side sectional elevation of a combined spade andpick embodying my invention, showing the employment of a hollow metalhandle and a blade and pick, each provided with a lug seated within therespective ends of the handle and Welded thereto. Fig.2 is a perspectiveview of the same.

l'leretofore in the construction of spades and the like the blade hasbeen formed with two prongs or extensions inclosing or partly inclosingthe tapered end of a wooden handle 'and riveted thereto, and for thisreason is not very durable, in that the handle is thus greatly weakenedat its point of attachment to the blade and easily broken. It is anobject of my invention to avoid this Weak construction of combining theparts and at the same time to provide a spade having combined therewitha pick that will be comparatively light in Weight, simple inconstruction, cheap, and durable.

My invention relates generally to a new and improved construction ofspades and the like and specifically to the class of spades'adapted forthe digging of post-holes; and it consists in the employment of a hollowmetal handle and the welding thereto at one end of a spade blade or thelike and the combination therewith of a conically-shaped pick tofacilitate the removal of encountered obstructions, welded to the handleat its opposite end, and to this end consists of the arrangement andcombination of parts hereinafter fully described and claimed.

In the drawings, A is the blade, B the handle, and O the pick.

In construction the blade A, which may be of any desired pattern as toits body portion and cutting-edge, is preferably made of steel andprovided at its end opposite its cuttingedge with a lug a. The handle Bis hollow, and is conveniently formed of a piece of iron tubing of adesired diameter and length. The lug a of the blade A is of sizesufficient as to diameter to snugly fit the interior of the hollowhandle B at one end, and when placed the parts are welded together toform a rigid whole. The pick 0 is also preferably made of steel to adesired size, conically shaped, and at its base end-that is to say,opposite its apexprovided with a lug c and likewise adapted to snugly[it the interior of the end of the hollow handle B opposite to thatoccupied by the lng on the bladeA, and is welded thereto to form a rigidpart thereof.

As will be obvious, an implement constructed in accordance with myinvention, combining aspade and pick,is of great practical use andfurthermore possesses in its entirety the advantage of beingnon-destructible.

I do not wish to be understood as restricting my invention to the exactconstruction shown and described, it will be apparent that modificationsof the same may be adopted to serve equally as well without departingfrom the spirit of my invention strictly as such. Thus, for instance,the lugs a and 0 may be made hollow as a whole or divided into two ormore prongs and adapted to inclose or partly inclose the respective endsof the hollow metal handle B and subsequently welded thereto to form aperfect and rigid whole. For the same reason the pick may also be of aform other than conical.

Having" thus described my invention, I claim As a new article ofmanufacture, an excavating-tool comprising a tubular metal handle andthe tool proper, also of metal, said tool proper provided with a shankhaving a shoulder, said shank adapted to snugly fit within the tubularhandle and its shoulder to abut against the same and the parts weldedtogether, as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed my name this 11th day ofNovember, AD. 1889.

JOHN N. M. SHIMER. I11 presence of J. HENRY WILLIAMS, JOHN J oLLEY, Jr.

